


Mischievous Ghost of A Nevada Base

by Dawn_Khee



Series: Shadow of Doubt [2]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Crack, Enemies to Friends, Gen, Horror, I Don't Even Know, Implied Violence, Psychological Horror, Valarie and Star have the A-lister brain cell
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:21:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26935042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dawn_Khee/pseuds/Dawn_Khee
Summary: No one expected the A-listers to jump feet first into dealing with ghosts. It started investigating a haunted house and, eventually, one thing lead to another. The one thing the A-listers would always agree on, no matter what, is this:Stopping a code Elvira takes priority Casper High's rules. And some laws.
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Tucker Foley & Sam Manson, Elvira Wraith & Chaos, Sam Manson & Elvira Wraith
Series: Shadow of Doubt [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1989667
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27





	1. A Haunted Haunted House

Every year on Halloween, 917 Maple Street gained temporary hauntings. Before the portal, ghosts were quiet about it. Last year, the Fright Knight, made a first in open hauntings.  
  
No, the reason ghost hunters avoided that house wasn’t because of the fact it fits the Halloween theme. Ghost hunters _wouldn’t_ avoid a literally haunted, well, haunted house. Most of the time they’d jump on catching the spooks haunting the place. Eager to earn the right to say they caught a ghost in a house meant for a Halloween attraction.  
  
But this haunting...  
  


* * *

  
Halloween came to Amity again, and to no one’s surprise a crowd of students stood outside the town’s haunted house. Instead of the normal screaming, the area remained hushed. Whispering rippled through the crowd more ominous than the shrieks of terror everyone expected. No one ventured past the street at first, save the A-listers.  
  
Closed. “Do not cross” tape barred the door and windows. For years the staff, or students, set up the old house for some scary good fun. Last year, even with the ghostly knight incident, everyone figured it’d open back up. One word stuck in the student’s brains. _Closed._ _  
__  
_ The A-listers stood directly in front of the crowd, looking at each other. Dash went to throw a rock at the house before the others shot him a look. Reluctantly he threw it far down the street. Stupid ghost ruined his chance to get the best haunted house twice in a row He’d beaten Fenturd by a long shot last year, and seeing him lose that bet brought a smile to his face. _  
__  
_ “Are you crazy even ghost hunters avoid going in this place,” Paulina shot another wary glance at the building.  
  
The one time of year she would even risk getting slime on her skin _willingly_. Hearing the losers scream, even if she ended up screaming right after them, was worth the risk. The only dusty old house she’d be caught in a weird get-up was _that_ one. Halloween gave her reason to do a few things she wouldn’t dare do otherwise. What was the point now?  
  
Star wanted to go in there and find out what haunted this house now and why. If the ghost hunters avoided this place then how could she think of an excuse to go inside? No one would let her no matter how good her reasons were. As much as she wanted the story, as much as she _desperately_ wanted to get the scoop first, she didn’t want to go in anymore. Her pulse thudded a bit faster and a slight chill shot up her spine at the idea of going in alone. Maybe if Kwan went with her?  
  
Kwan looked at Star’s face. Go in there? It’s bad enough an actual ghost haunted the place now, but one even the town ghost hunters, except for the Fentons, avoided? This wasn’t some joke. She wasn’t that crazy. No one wanted to find out the hard way what happened to people the ghost caught.  
  
“Don’t even _think_ about it,” he told her.  
  
All of them looked at each other, furiously, and to the shock of everyone, they walked right up to the door. As the tape slipped loose on its own, they knew they could turn back. No one did. With a creak, the door came open with too little prodding by Valarie, and after they stepped inside silence hung in the air. Haunted houses were normal here…  
  
Right?  
  
The creaking echoed as the kids walked further in. Nothing was here. For some reason, however, the air felt _wrong._ It felt almost colder, but not physically. They pulled out flashlights and looked around what should be a decorated and festive house. Nothing-  
  
A shriek split the air. Everyone was there except- Paulina. The others whirled around and shone their flashlights in the direction of the scream. Valarie had an ecto-gun armed and ready to fire, while Star and the boys cowered. Already, the spirit-  
  
She’d walked into a spider web. Paulina had let out a blood-curdling scream because of a _spider web_. Valarie lowered her gun, while the others stopped shining their flashlights in her face. At least it wasn’t the ghost. Still, it was a **_spider web_**.  
  
“I didn’t know what it was,” she looked at the others staring half-angrily at her, “it felt _disgusting_.”

She picked off the last scraps of the web, thinking she was fine. When the spider crawled up her arm she gave a small sound of horror and disgust as she shook her arm. The spider ended up in Star’s hair, earning a scream from the reporter-to-be. Valarie facepalmed.  
  
“It’s just a stupid spider!” she snapped.  
  
As the spider scuttled back into the dark before someone could squish it, the teens ventured deeper into the house. Complete with Valarie muttering, clear enough for the others to hear, that she’d make sure this ghost regretted coming to Amity Park at all. The other four weren’t so brave to make verbal threats. Let alone say anything in response to her.  
  
“When I catch that ghost…” Valarie growled at a normal volume.  
  
Star gave her a worried look, “Y-you realize it can probably hear you right?”  
  
Three teens looked at Star, then to Valarie, wanting an answer. Silence filled the room as Valarie walked into a room. The four followed, thinking she’d answer soon. All she did was rummage through stuff that should’ve been set up by now. Fake spider webs, fake spiders, one real spider- that box hadn’t been there last year. At least, not that anyone knew of.  
  


Star peaked inside and her eyes widened, “Newspaper clippings?”  
  
Dash and Valarie grabbed the other two boxes and the five began to dig through the clippings. A clip of Mr.Grey getting promoted in Axion labs and a story about Amity’s newest weatherman at the time, Lance Thunder, sat on the table. The two read the stories, realizing they were at least ten years old.  
  
The notes on their dads weren’t too disturbing. Just little notes on what had changed about their jobs after the town became haunted. Damon Grey needed to figure out how to make security ghost proof, and Mr.Thunder- well, the note just commented on it. Star read the note out loud, confused.  
  
“I feel bad the guy has ghosts attack him all the time. He seems like he’d be fine around ghosts if it weren’t for the fact they try to jump him. Or at least wouldn’t be so scared of them,” she blinked and looked up, “why is my name scribbled at the bottom?”  
  
Kawn went to flip the scrap of paper over and met Star’s hand. He pulled back and apologized quietly before Star revealed what was on the other side. The notes were about _her._ She read it a few times, trying to make sure she was reading it right. Whoever these belonged to thought they needed more detailed notes when it came to Star Thunder.

The notes themselves were more unsettling. It wasn’t just the fact they were there. If they’d been just labels or something to do with sorting, it wouldn’t be this disturbing. The girls read the notes over and over. They had to be from some kind of stalker. Well, if they weren’t a ghost’s then they had a _living_ one on their hands.  
  
That wasn’t the worst part. Valarie flipped over the notes on her dad, to find there were far more on her than on Star. Whoever made these notes knew about her ghost hunting. Who could’ve known she started hunting ghosts so soon after Vlad gave her the suit? No- this had to be a ghost.

She read the lines that screamed ghost out loud, “After the other ghosts started coming around, Damon’s daughter ended up becoming a ghost hunter. Pretty much hates all ghosts Avoid, but don’t attack unless cornered.”  
  
They didn’t find anything too strange on anyone else there. Sure they got a little too personal when it came to the kids, but none of them expected one of the boxes to be dedicated to one family. When they found the notes on the Fenton family- they went back before Amity Park. All the way back to when Mr. and Mrs. Fenton were both in college.  
  
This wasn’t innocent memory keeping at all. It was calculated. As if whatever this ghost was planning, it wanted to know exactly who it had to watch out for and who wasn’t even a threat. Maybe something worse... After arguing about what to do with the notes, the A-listers left them in the room. As they wandered upstairs, a crash came from deeper in the house

They checked the rooms, searching for anything that might tell them why the ghost decided to come here. They didn't find anything, aside from a pair of sunglasses. When they went back downstairs, the group was about to leave. Almost. A thud from the room near the stairs echoed.  
  
Nothing.  
  
The teens froze when they heard creaking- it wasn’t them. They turned to the direction the noise came from, expecting something to be waiting. Nothing. It’d come from the entrance. Wait… A door slammed in the night as the teens ran back towards the front of the house.  
  
“I told you we shouldn’t have gone in here!” Kwan’s voice shook.  
  
A thud echoed in the dismal house as he fell backward trying to open the door. Another and two more thuds echoed as the girls grew increasingly afraid. Even the windows wouldn’t budge. Nothing broke them even when it should have. A word burned into five brains.  
**_  
_****_Trapped.  
  
_**

Something darted from the shadows as the quintet turned around, causing two girls to scream. Valarie watched carefully, muttering under her breath. The boys just stared- into the same darkness that something darted out of. A heavy unease seeped into them and drowned out the normal air of the building.  
  
“We can’t just stand around waiting for it to find us,” Valarie waited for Star and Paulina to calm down.  
  
“What are you talking about? It probably heard us outside!” Kwan protested.  
  
Everything in them screamed for them to turn around. The sharp breaths coming from their lungs, the pounding of their hearts, and the cold sweat drenching their skin made the air feel even colder. The dread in the air begged them to _run_. When they froze the flashlights died in sync. As the stretching, _moving_ shadows reached for them, something moved in a blur. It wasn’t a shadow.  
  
“Did you see that?” Dash’s eyes darted around.  
  
“No-” Kwan lied.

Unholy laughter split the air as purple eyes stared from the dark for a moment, and then vanished. The teens, save for Valarie, trembled. While they were all distracted the dark itself cut off their escape.  
  
“We're gonna die!” Paulina cried clinging to Star.  
  
Their own shadows grappled them into place as the ghost made herself known. A stark white specter clothed in black crept towards them as they panicked, taking her sweet, sweet time. The gleam in her eyes screamed that she enjoyed their terror. A twisted smile spread across her face silently boasting tormenting them was all a game to her.

As she crept closer still, she raised a clawed hand to command Paulina’s shadow to fling the girl into her grasp. Six voices rang out in a scream. The ghost’s head slowly examined the room with shifting expressions before turning back to her shaking captive. With closed eyes she inhaled wisps of purple mist.  
  
With a blissful sigh, she spoke, “You act like I bite-” purple orbs flashed into view as a grin sliced open to reveal too-sharp teeth.  
  
“D-don’t eat me, _please!_ ” Paulina sobbed.  
  
Seconds stretched into eternity as the ghost’s tail waved rhythmically in the darkness. For a moment, claws gripped the poor girl’s arm tighter. With a slightly tilted head, the ghost looked Paulina in the eyes. Considering the matter. As she parted her lips-  
  
“Happy Halloween wusses,” she let go and laughed again.  
  
All of this was a prank. A ghost decided to pull a _trick_ on them for Halloween. All they could think about was the fact she _wasn't_ going to hurt them. What about the other ghost hunters who ran out screaming bloody murder? What about the Guys in White agents who _never came back out?_  
  
“You-” Kwan gawked, still terrified.  
  
“-think this is some sick joke?” Valarie screamed, unable to shoot her now.  
  
“I already caught Danny in here,” she snorted, “and he knows I’m not gonna eat anyone.”  
  
“Yeah, yeah,” Fenton rolled his eyes, “just get out so Casper High can hold their haunted house this year.”  
  
All the A-listers locked eyes with the teenager. Shock, confusion, and concern. Danny _Fenton_ ran into this ghost before they did. Danny **Fenton** was telling her to get out like it was normal as if she wasn’t a monster. Danny **_Fenton_** who this ghost stalked more than anyone else in this house. His loser friends came into the house, grinning. What the heck **_FENTON?!_**

“Before you ask, she had those notes before I met her, and yeah, it’s _disturbing, creepy, and horrifying,”_ Danny stared right at the ghost, “but there are ghosts who’ve done worse considering there's not much personal information in those notes.”  
  
“Not much personal information?!” eight teens yelled at the same time.  
  
“I don’t know your mothers’ maiden names, and I don’t know your social security number,” she snapped her fingers, put the shadows back where they belonged, and grinned, but this time, the sharp-toothed grin was warm and playful, “but I might know where you live.”


	2. Welcome to Existence

Halloween had come and gone with plenty of ghostly shenanigans. Somehow most of the teens still wanted to do something with the haunted house. Even after Halloween night's events. So, on November 1st, the A-listers managed to have an excuse to be at the house despite the haunting. They'd take it even if Manson had to come with them.

Well, they only had a reason because of her. A deathday party of all things brought them back here. That's what it  _ was,  _ but the ghost insisted on calling it a ghostly existence party. Could anyone blame her? She probably just didn't want to remember how she died- or something.

* * *

"As much as you're eating, we wouldn't think you're a ghost," Dash leaned on a doorframe, "that looser Manson told us we couldn't bring any pop besides  _ Sprite _ ,"

Snagging some more candy, she tore the wrappers off with her claws as if she were starving. She shoved the candy into her mouth. Mainly, a handful of fun-size Snickers met a terrible fate at her jaws. The ghost beamed at Paulina as she floated over to the mini-fridge. All she wanted is her third can of pop, not more of the girl's fear.

After struggling with the tab for a good while, she growled. When she pulled up the tab with her claw it opened like she  _ didn't _ spend half a minute trying to open it. She looked at the can closer... Someone superglued the tab down with clear glue. The kid who did it wasn't even in the room.

She chugged half a can in one go, "If you wusses thought I was terrifying without caffeine, you don't wanna see me with it," she gave him a wide grin before taking a smaller gulp of Sprite.

At this, his eyes widened a little, to which the ghost grinned wider. Too bad she decided to be responsible and warned them, or she could show them what real fear meant. No, she'd settle for Sprite. As much as she wanted to, they were here- possible new friends. As in, humans who wouldn't run for their lives upon seeing her.

"Dash for the safety of everyone's soul, do not give Elvira coffee," Sam warned him.

Everyone paused a little at that, save for Sam and Elvira. Elvira rolled her eyes when Sam gave her a warning look. Still, no one could tell how serious Manson meant the word soul. Elvira only winked at Sam who crossed her arms.

"Why isn't Fenton here?" Paulina asked before she could stop herself, "Is it because of his looser parents?"

The smug face turned into a scowl and her claws tensed. A ghostly tail lashed and if it weren't for the fact Halloween only happened yesterday, it would've swept up puffs of dust. The glow in her eyes didn't scream mischief. It radiated anger and resentment. 

"I don't wanna talk about the kid's parents," her eye twitched a little, "the kid's  _ fine _ but his  ** parents- ** "

"Hey, Lady Peeves."

Growling, the ghost let it go. Elvira didn't want to, but she let it go. The empty pop can she dropped onto the floor earned puncture marks from her claws. Muttering under her breath she went for another can, and it opened with a crisp pop-fizz. She'd complain even if she couldn't rant.

Valaire asked, arms crossed, still eyeing Elvira. The ghost bared her teeth at the teen and Valaire only glared back harder. She looked at Sam instead of staring at the ghost hunter. If the "Red Huntress" wasn't attacking, then she could try not to a big fight. Elvira kept glancing at the teen as if she'd pull something.

Dash broke the silent tension, "So how'd you two become friends anyway?"

"Easy," smiled, hoping to distract Elvira, "we met in the Skulk and Lurk."

Valarie's eyes didn't leave the ghost as she floated around the room. Swishing her tail a bit faster, Elvira tried to ignore the stares. She focused on other teens here. Letting her eyes wander from teen to teen, and ignoring the one who kept looking at her as if she'd hurt someone, Elvira settled on looking at the kid named Paulina.

"Just because you met there, doesn't explain how you're friends with a ghost," Paulina added, "you still haven't told me how you met Phantom either."

"We argued over our taste in horror movies and just kept running into each other there," Sam shrugged, "she loves the classic b-rated ones."

Glancing at Sam, she stuffed her hands in her pockets. Her ghostly tail waved slower, faster for a moment when she caught sight of Valaire still glaring, and then back to normal when she looked at Sam again. She shrank into a slight hunch at the way she said b-rated. Gently, she rubbed her mom's old shades.

"Hey, they can still be scary," she sulked a little.

For a few more seconds she pouted but stopped the second she heard Valaire make a noise. Tensing, she didn't let her guard back down. Elvira tried not to look at the ghost hunter in her home away from home. With the rising tension, she felt her core hum. Not in the happy purring way, but in a soft growling way.

The growl grew loud enough for a human to hear, albeit barely. Keeping her eyes on Sam, for now, she tried not to start anything. When her tail Twitched hard, it only further betrayed Valarie's bias she wasn't as "friendly" as she claimed. Elvira knew not to look at her. However, she still felt the stare bore into her.

Sam laughed a little, "I didn't say they couldn't be."

"You mean you trusted her not to do anything?"

Breathing in deeply didn't seem natural for a ghost. For her, she'd breathed for decades despite never needing to. Obsession, comfort, keeping her anger from exploding, it didn't matter which one the A-listers assumed. The correct answer: D, all of the above. Sadly, it wasn't working well for the latter.

"Paulina, I get why you'd be worried, but she's mostly bark."

Not exactly. The ghost acted scary for fun, but they hadn't witnessed the side of her she shoved down. That she shoved down right now. The side that threatened to burst out of her if the "Red Huntress" decided to push too far.

Breathing in more, she tried to calm down. One teen, one ghost hunter, so she'd be fine. Elvira tried to tell herself she wasn't in danger. Tensing and relaxing her fists, she managed to shift to a neutral expression. The others didn't need to see what she could do when mad.

"So that's why Fenturd wasn't afraid of her," Dash commented.

The ghost's gaze shifted to Dash, and she raised an eyebrow. The son of ghost hunters being afraid of ghosts made sense, and yet, it didn't. Not with a certain secret in her hands, or claws. They didn't know what she and Sam knew, so she just played it off. Somehow her guard slipped for a second at the thought of the halfa.

"Well you guys screamed and he didn't," Elvira smiled in the same fashion as the knife cat meme.

"You wouldn't be so smug if my ecto-gun worked," Valarie purposely muttered loud enough for her to hear.

Purple eyes glowed. Sharp teeth settled into a grimace as she floated a few steps towards the "Red Huntress" who wasn't in her suit at the moment. Behind the anger and hostility, rested fear. Quickly shoving down the fear, she decided to quit holding back.

Elvira animated Valarie's shadow to pick her up off the ground. Once the others tensed, and Paulina screamed a little, she froze. Dash backed up a few steps, remembering last night's events. The two didn't leave, despite the fact they rushed towards the door. Neither one wanted to be in Elvira's way no matter how much Sam claimed her friend wouldn't hurt them.

Sam wasn't afraid. Grabbing Elvira's wrist lightly, she looked at the ghost. Elvira looked her back in the eyes. No, Sam wasn't scared of her. Though, she might be worried about what she'd do. It still meant Sam was afraid.

For a few neverending moments, she loomed over the teen. Then, she dropped the teen onto the floor before floating backward. Squeezing her claws into a fist, she kept eye contact with the teen. The ghost glanced at the others for a moment. An ecto-gun met her when she looked back at the "Red Huntress." 

"Valaire, don't," Sam stared tiredly at the A-Lister.

"Right, a ghost enjoys getting a sick laugh and you take  _ her _ side."

Elvira huffed- sick laugh? She didn't speak her mind in front of Valarie. Knowing her, seeing how she acted, the ghost hunter wouldn't show sympathy. Being open, around her, would only make things worse. Wadding up all the fury and fear, she shoved it down as much as she could.

"You threatened her first, and unlike the nerds, she'll put up a fight." Dash shot back.

"You didn't have to come," Paulina put in, for  _ once  _ taking Sam's side, "besides, the scariest thing about this ghost is her unmanicured nails."

Elvira glanced at the door- there were two others. She ignored it, thinking they had homework. She stared at her claws and looked up at Paulina. Frowning tiredly, she looked at her. Elvira Wraith had  _ claws _ not  _ nails _ .

"Unmanicured claws," Elvira corrected, "they're not that bad."

"No offense, but even I think they need it," Dash put his hand to his cheek.

"How would you know about nail manicures?" 

"The groomer clips Pookey's nails," he explained, "bad nail care can cause health problems."

They weren't nails in her opinion. Well, dog claws weren't the best comparison but it worked. She couldn't retract them for one, and secondly, they weren't nail shaped. Claws, they were claws. Though, she had enough dignity not to use nail- claw trimmers for dogs.

Elvira looked at her nails, "anyone got a nail file?"

Paulina pulled out a nail file and handed it to Elvira, who started to work on her claws. A little too long and at least a little too rough, she worked silently. Sam just smiled a little, Paulina stared at this ghost struggling to file her too-long nails that she insisted calling claws, and Dash put a fist to his cheek.

Valarie stood a ways off, away from the ghost and away from the others. Eventually, Dash went to grab another Sprite while Paulina, despite being intimidated by Elvira, came over to help. The embarrassment bled through to Paulina's expression, and Elvira grumpily held out a hand so Sam could at least get one hand done.

Elvira's head whipped up just as Sam started on a claw with a black file. They all looked towards the door after she did. This time, she tensed again, eyes glowing, ready to attack if more ghost hunters showed up. She tensed, even more, when the door opened. Kwan and Star ran in and slammed the door shut, gasping for breath. 

"Some shadow ghost tried to kidnap us!" Kwan wheezed.

Star looked at Elvira, "She acted like you  _ know  _ her-"

Valarie tore into her verbally but she didn't hear it. No, her ectoplasm boiled at the idea of Spectra tormenting them. Spectra, the ghost she couldn't get away from. The ghost who she'd always be under. The ghost she'd always be under the shadow of, no, Spectra was a shadow. Only a shadow of the pathetic woman she used to be.

Sam yelled at Valarie, but it didn't register. Spectra, when she knew not to screw with her friends, decided to try to snatch them off the streets. When she'd already taken Lusamine from her, she decided to take literal children. She never cared about anyone other than herself most of the time. No- all of the time.

Paulina and Dash joined in, trying to stop the fight. Kwan and Star tried to shout above the fighting to explain what happened. Soon they were all trying to yell over each other. The noise grew, and grew, and  _ grew _ . Just like the fury inside her, ready to make her burst. The one thing she heard above the noise is when Valaire accused that she'd readily turn on them and side with Spectra.

A nail file snapped in two.


	3. Hyde

"Did you just," Sam stared at Valaire but focused on Elvira, "she didn't mean it, I promise she wouldn't be so stupid if she knew what that really meant,"  
  
Elvira questioned harshly cackled, "why would I worry about _her?_ "  
  
Animating their shadows, with her hood pulled up, she calmly flew out of the building without another word. Faintly, from somewhere else in the house, Elvira argued with someone. No one wanted to point out by name who the second belonged to, but they all knew they heard one muffled voice too many.   
  
Sam stood rooted, and the others didn't move. Valarie, however, started to follow after. Star grabbed her arm, Kwan silently begged her not to go outside, Dash stood behind Sam, and Paulina just stared at the spot Elvira went through the wall. The Red Huntress summoned her suit and glanced over her shoulder at Star.  
  
"We all know who that is."  
  
Kwan and Star only looked at each other and swallowed hard. Star didn't let go. Only gripping tighter, she refused to let her friend leave the room alone. No, leave at all. If that shadow ghost wanted to kidnap them, she'd take more- _drastic_ measures to get Valaire out of the way.  
  
"Wait- are you saying you're going after that thing?" Star asked.  
  
Shattering echoed in the house, and half of what the ghosts spat at each other made it through the walls. Not just because they decided to raise their voices. The fight, in fact, did get closer. Wood cracking and splintering came followed by a loud thud. They almost missed the soft splat mixed in.  
  
Something about being too much, or not enough like each other. Something about never being anything but a monster. Screeching and then another thud-splat echoed through the house. Unfortunately for the living in the house, they couldn't ignore the splat this time. Only Valarie and Sam remained unfazed. Yet, night and day stood between them.  
  
"If they're anything alike, they'll both be afraid of ghost hunters- now let me go take care of this." 

Sam came to her senses, "Anyone who gets in between them's asking to get killed."

The more they tried to ignore it, the worse the fighting seemed to get. Cracking came louder than before and something snapped closer than expected. Something about then being the same in the end, no matter what either of them did. Something else about moving from under her shadow. Slow tearing filled the silence soon after. The night deepened and the day grew brighter.  
  
Dash turned a new shade of green and Paulina put her hand to her mouth. Kwan paled instantly, his eyes jumping from person to person, looking for anyone who had any composure at all. Star made eyecontact with Kwan, failing to hide her terror. Valarie didn't take her eyes off the door, tensing in preperation for when the fray reached them. Sam bit her lip and flinched each time a she heard something too wet or too forceful.  
  
"Sam, have you ever seen her when she's not pretending to be scary?" Paulina's eyes darted nervously.  
  
Sam took a few moments too long for lying to work, "I've only heard her talk about it, but I think we're seeing her bite."  
  
Dash asked, "You mean she actually bites people?"  
  
Shadows crashed into the room and rushed out, warning of their comming. Unforming and reforming, the shadows streamed to and fro. A barely human voice yelled at an almost human one. Life or death seemed to hang in the balance, no matter how much the teens tried to convince themselves it didn't. The inhuman voice stood between them and their doom, ironically.

"She's about as mad as I am- or was at Phantom," Valarie muttered aloud on accident, letting her fear finally escape.  
  
"Worse," Star held out a piece of paper, "I sorta kept it from when we were going through our notes."  
  
The others gathered around her. The Guys in White offical seal marked the papers. As they read, their eyes grew in horror. It wasn't more presudo-stalking. Finding this answered unspoken questions lurking in their minds, but no one wanted the answer to be this. Star dropped the paper, refusing to pick it back up.

Except for Sam Manson's. She looked away, pretending that she couldn't look anymore out of disturbance to hide the tears gathering in her eyes. Holdinng one of her arms, she took a shuddering breath. As the shadow whisps curled around them before reforming, the others backed away from where the paper lay on the floor. Except for Star, who picked it up, folded it neatly, and shoved it in her pocket out of sight.  
  
Nobody spoke. For seconds, maybe a minute or two, no one spoke. It stretched to an eternity and a half with the far too close fight filling the air. Looking at eachother, the teens could perfectly read what the others felt about this revelation. Forgetting this horrible revelation would be impossible, no matter how deseperatly they wanted to in the moment.  
  
"They actually-" disgust drenched Valarie.  
  
Twelve eyes looked towards the wall between them and the rest of the too haunted house. So that's why she called it a ghostly existance party and not a deathday. Elvira never died in the first place, and they all felt sick at the idea. It bled into their faces for an array of reasons, but they all could agree on why the feeling spread into their chests and stomachs.  
  
"So she's..." Kwan trailed off.  
  
"-a clone," Dash finished without having even read the paper at all, "it's like the movies where a clone tries to kill the person they came from."  
  
Everyone agreed quietly to the idea. Every one of them had something they hated to talk about, whatever it might be. Yet, most of what Elvira would rather keep secret spewed into the air, courtesy of the shadow ghost. 

Now, the ghosts were right outside the room. Nothing about this fight sounded human anymore. At least, nothing about Elvira came off as almost alive. Despite her better judgment, Valarie moved to open the door. She stopped when she placed her hand on the doorknob.  
  
If she didn't face them now, they'd bring the fight into the room. Valarie inhaled, and then slowly exhaled. Even if she hated the idea, she'd only have to focus on shooting at one ghost. She inhaled and exhaled again. As she turned the doorknob, she took one last deep breath.

A very human-sounding shriek split the air and died before it could finish. Valarie froze mid turn, and then opened the door. Nothing horrifying, dispite all the sounds from before, met her. As she started out the door, something came through the wall. Red and black whirled around to confront the ghost.  
  
Elvira floated into the room too calm, too collected, too relaxed. Shadows cloaked her, moving seemingly on their own. Then, they drifted back to the floor beside their owners. The burning glow in her eyes lingered as she hovered, surveying the A-listers. She only shrugged.  
  
The A-Listers remained tense, afraid, and sickened. She didn't focus on them much. Elvira's gaze fixed onto Sam, causing the furious glow left over to drain from her eyes. Pausing where she floated, she shoved one hand into her cloak pocket. Muttering something, she looked to the floor for a moment before looking back at Sam.  
  
She floated over to Sam without a word. A tired, almost neutral expression rested on her face. As if the past events weren't anything out of place, or perhaps, horrifying to bystanders. After glancing around the room without moving her head, she pulled down her hood and held up a hand.  
  
"...I broke a claw." she blushed a deep purple.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't play Touhou but the song/track titles trends inspired the title.
> 
> (Tumblr prompt fill for the first chapter- There’s a house in town that’s haunted, which is no surprise, but the nature of this haunting is making even the best ghost hunters wary)


End file.
